


With the Hands of Uncertainty

by smaragdbird



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, F/M, Unplanned Pregnancy, girl!Bruce
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-28
Updated: 2014-04-28
Packaged: 2018-01-21 02:07:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1533692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smaragdbird/pseuds/smaragdbird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bruce winds up pregnant. Now she has a decision to make and she wants to make that decision for herself before she tells Tony about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	With the Hands of Uncertainty

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [this ](http://avengerkink.livejournal.com/8247.html?thread=18268727#t18268727) prompt on [](http://avengerkink.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://avengerkink.livejournal.com/)**avengerkink**. It's spell-checked so I hope it won't be too bad.

The little plus sign wouldn’t go away even after the third test. With a frustrated sigh Bruce threw the little plastic stick into the rubbish bin and leaned heavily against the sink.

“Knocked up at 44 by Tony Stark”, she told her mirror image with a dry smile, “well done, girl.”

Her first thought was: I can’t keep it.

Her second thought was: maybe someone’s trying to tell me something.

Then she sat down on the floor and told herself to calm down. The last thing she should do right now was to let the Other Girl out. Who knew if the transformation wouldn’t abort the pregnancy at once? If she was right then this had happened after the last Avengers mission two and a half months ago where she hadn’t transformed but instead played the frightened woman to lure the Hydra agents in only to knock them out when they weren’t looking.

Turned out Tony’s not so secret kink for competence extended to martial arts. Afterwards Bruce had teased him mercilessly for that.

Did she want a child? Well, she had, once, a long time ago. When she had been madly in love with Betty and they had talked about a house near Culver and adopting a kitten from the litter Betty’s lab assistant’s cat had had. Betty had wanted children, too.

After the Incident Bruce had more or less given up on the thought. Between transforming into the other girl and the toxicity of her blood she had sincerely doubted that she could get pregnant in the first place.

Obviously she had been wrong. She was a scientist for god’s sake, she should have known better than to simply assume things. After all she had assumed that Ross had told her the truth when he had told her the project was about a nuclear protection serum.

Should she tell Tony? Bruce had honestly no idea how he would react. Did he even want children? They had never talked about it. Would he leave her? Would he stay and try to be a good father. She didn’t doubt that he would try but besides Tony’s drinking habit he could be irresponsible and childish as much as loyal and mature.

Was it fair to make him hope when she didn’t know if the child would live? Even if the transformations didn’t abort the pregnancy her blood was still toxic enough that the amount of blood from a small cut was enough to put a man into a hospital bed.

The foetus could turn out unviable any given day. Or maybe it would only live as long as it was protected by her body and die right after the birth. What if the radiation caused severe mutations? Or maybe her child would inherit the same defence mechanism that she had against the radiation.

For a moment Bruce stifled a hysterical giggle with her hands. The image of a miniature Hulk stomping around was just too much.

Could she really take this chance just because of a decade old dream about white picket fences and proving that she could be a better parent than her father had ever been? Could she do that to Tony? To herself? And most importantly could she do it to her child?

Wouldn’t it be kinder to end its life before it could suffer? Spare herself the pain of having her dreams crumbling through her hands once again? There had been a reason after all why she had tried to kill herself.

Her head hurt from arguing with herself. Bruce left her place on the floor, passing the mirror once more. She was a scientist and she would deal with this like a scientist. Get a good night’s sleep, write down the pros and cons and get an informed opinion on the case.

//////////////////////////////////

“Can you guys make do without me for a couple days?” She asked the next morning at the kitchen table. It was Thor’s turn to cook so everyone was present and accounted for up to an including Tony even though it was 8am and Darcy who pretended that the papers she had dropped by couldn’t wait until she saw Coulson at work.

“Why, is there an outbreak of cholera in Laos?” Clint snarked from the opposite side.

“I want to bounce some ideas with Betty”, Bruce answered, simultaneously glaring at Clint and refilling Tony’s coffee, always a good bribe.

“Have you heard about emails? Or telephones, or video calls?” Clint asked.

“You do know that I wasn’t actually asking for permission, right?”

“Someone’s touchy this morning”, Clint mocked her.

And because she was a totally mature person Bruce stuck her tongue out at him.

/////////////////////////////

“Hey”, Bruce said when Betty met her at the trainstation. Tony had offered to drive her but Bruce knew that Pepper would quarter him if he missed another meeting with the Avengers’ publicity agent.

“Hey”, Betty said as she hugged her tightly. She was using the same perfume, a fragrance of jasmine, and her hair still smelled like oranges. “So, you and Tony Stark then?” Betty asked teasingly as they walked to her car.

Bruce shrugged but despite her situation she couldn’t hide a small smile.

“I’m happy for you”, Betty said and sounded like she meant it.

“Thanks.”

“So what brings you to Culver? You were less tight lipped when you worked for the General.”

Bruce looked at her hands folded in her lap. “I’m pregnant.”

“Oh.”

Suddenly she regretted coming here. She shouldn’t have put this on Betty. Tony had given her all the lab equipment she could possibly want. She could have done all tests herself.

“Congratulations”, Betty said with a genuine smile.

“I…the child might…”

“I see. That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?”

Bruce nodded. She felt like she didn’t deserve Betty’s sympathy.

“Hey”, Betty said and squeezed Bruce’s hand. “You’ll be a great mum.”

“If I get to be a mum at all.”

“We’ll figure something out. Worst case scenario your kid can play Elphaba without any make up on.”

Despite everything Bruce laughed.

/////////////////////////////

Betty had a friend who worked in the embryology department and asked her to help them out as well. Bruce couldn’t quite swallow the dread that had settled in her throat but working in a lab with Betty was familiar and reminded her of the old days when her life had been easier.

“Jarvis is incompetent”, Tony whined when she called him on her second night away.

“You’ve bounced ideas off Jarvis for years”, Bruce said amused while cooking dinner for herself and Betty. More old memories were clinging to the surface but Tony’s voice helped to push them back where they belonged.

“He’s just a computer.”

“A very clever computer. Or are you doubting your own work?”

“My work is flawless.”

“Careful then or I might get the impression that you miss me.”

“You’re the only person here who speaks English.”

“I’ll be home in a couple days.”

“You better or Loki might get ideas.”

Bruce laughed and hung up, feeling a little less anxious.

////////////////////////////

“As far as I can tell your child will be perfectly healthy”, Betty’s friend Sara said. “But you’re not very far along and many tests simply won’t be useful at this stage. But the DNA tests show none of the usual birth defects that are associated with overexposure of radiation.”

“That’s really not helping me at all”, Bruce sighed.

“Let’s look at it from this way: every pregnancy has risks. I have three kids and believe me I prayed every single night even after all tests came back clean”, Sara said.

“Talk with Tony”, Betty said, taking Bruce’s hands into hers. “Then you can still decide what to do, together.”

Bruce nodded. She had hoped to be able to give Tony something to make an informed decision instead of a lucky guess. But it seemed like science was not a good enough basis for her life choices.

She called Tony that night and told him she’d be back the next day. She didn’t sleep until the early hours of the morning, clutching Sara’s test results in her hands.

“You’ll be fine”, Betty told her when they said goodbye. “If anyone can beat the odds it’s you.”

“Thank you”, Bruce said and kissed her, not out of passion but as a token of affection and gratitude.

//////////////////////////////////

“Tony”, Bruce said when she came into the workshop, nervously taking off her glasses. “We need to talk.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Find me [ here](http://smaragdbird.tumblr.com/) on tumblr


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